“Biblically, there are three instances when killing is authorized: self-defense, capital punishment and military action authorized by a government against the enemy in the battle for the preservation of national freedom.
“A just war against a real evil; that kind of warfare is from God; He authorizes that. Now, if you’ll get that in your mind as a premise, you’ll never have a question about being a conscientious objector.
*****
“Numbers 32 presents a perfect case study in the Bible demonstrating the sinfulness of not going to war when it’s time to do so.
“Israel is going to go across into Canaan and they’re instructed to wage war on the people there illegitimately and throw them out. Now, two tribes—Reuben and Gad—find they like it on the eastern side of the Jordan River and tell Moses, ‘We’ll take this territory over here as our inheritance.’
“Moses responds, ‘It’s not right for you not to have to go and help fight to get the land—the Promised Land. Don’t start this pacifism stuff about how you’re not going to go fight; you’re gonna stay over there. The battle’s over here, guys! That’s the land God gave us.’
“You know what Moses’ saying? ‘If you don’t go to war when it’s time to war, it’s sinful.’ In Numbers 32:23, he says, ‘But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.’
“Now, you’ve heard that verse preached by preachers for ages—how your sin will find you out—and they talk about your drunkenness, adultery, lying, stealing. They use the verse, pull it out of its context and preach against the things they don’t like, but that verse is talking about cowardice! It’s talking about the sin of not going to war when it’s time to go to war!
“Moses said, ‘Look guys, if you’ll go and fight with the other tribes and win the war and get the thing over with, then it will be okay for you to have this land over here. But if don’t, you can be sure your sin of cowardice—and refusal to war when it’s time to go to war—will find you out.’
“People, when it’s time to do something and go to war, it’s wrong not to. That’s very clear.”
*****
Another key Bible principle of war is a nation need not wait until the enemy attacks before striking back.
“The big hullabaloo made before the Iraq War was that you got to find a reason to link Iraq with Al Qaeda so you can prove they attacked us,” Jordan says, “But the verses say, ‘No, no, no!’ One of the ‘just war’ doctrines of Augustine was that you never attack first. That isn’t Bible, though.
“Numbers 32:32 says, ‘We will pass over armed before the LORD into the land of Canaan, that the possession of our inheritance on this side Jordan may be ours.’ That’s saying, ‘We’ll go over there and fight so that our land on this side over here, where we’re not fighting, is secure.’ You see, in the Bible, a preemptive strike is not out of the question. You don’t have to wait till the enemy hits you before you hit him.
“There are times, and this is an example, where God required the aggressive action without an enemy striking first. Why? Because the enemy was in the wrong place and it was time to get him out of there.”
(new article tomorrow)
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